Boscaiola
Porcini, cream, and herbs. A Tuscan forest sauce — the name means woodman-style. The porcini are the whole story here.
Boscaiola comes from the forested regions of northern Italy — Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and the foothills of the Apennines — where porcini mushrooms have been foraged for centuries. The sauce emerged as a way to celebrate the porcini harvest: a slow pan of mushrooms cooked with garlic, herbs, and cream until the whole kitchen smells of the forest floor.
Only a few ingredients
Butter
A generous knob. The butter carries the mushroom flavour better than oil alone would.
generousGarlic
Sliced thin. Low heat. The butter should foam around the garlic, not brown it.
Porcini
Sliced. Dried are better here — rehydrate them in warm water and keep the liquid. Strain it through a fine sieve or a coffee filter — the grit is real.
dried preferredHeavy Cream
Full fat. After the mushrooms have released their water and begun to brown — that is the moment to add the cream. Let it reduce by half before the pasta goes in.
Parsley
Flat-leaf, chopped. Off the flame. Parsley brightens the cream and carries the mushroom flavour forward.
Parmigiano Reggiano
Grated at the table. A generous finish.
Dried porcini — the right choice for this sauce.
Dried porcini, rehydrated in warm water, produce a more concentrated mushroom flavour than fresh ones — the dehydration process intensifies the volatile compounds that make a porcini taste like a porcini. The texture of rehydrated mushrooms is different from fresh, but for Boscaiola, where the mushrooms are cooked into the sauce rather than presented as the main structural element, dried porcini often produce a better result. The soaking liquid, strained and added to the pan, carries flavour that fresh mushrooms simply cannot produce.
Tagliatelle
Fresh egg pasta that absorbs the cream and mushrooms.
Pappardelle
Wide ribbons for a substantial sauce.
Penne
The standard dried-pasta choice — practical, effective.
Ready to cook?
These sources we trust. Each one makes it correctly.